12 Museums to Explore in North Yorkshire

Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life is a social history museum in Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. The museum features period business displays including the shops of a barber, blacksmith, chemist, cobbler, cooper, printer, gentleman's draper, dairy and hardware store. There is also a Victorian-era pub and parlour, and a historic costume gallery.

The handsome 17th century house in Grape Lane is where the young James Cook came to serve his apprenticeship in the year 1746. It now houses a superb collection of original exhibits about Yorkshire’s most famous son. Original paintings, maps and manuscripts, ship models and Pacific artifacts tell the story of the Voyages.

This museum tells the fascinating story of the Yorkshire Dales and the people who have lived and worked here for thousands of years. The museum is located beside the disused Hawes railway station in the small town of Hawes at the head of Wensleydale. The museum's outdoor display includes a real steam train and carriages on the track bed of the former Wensleydale Railway.

Eden Camp Modern History Theme Museum is a large Second World War-related museum near Malton in North Yorkshire in England.It occupies a former Second World War prisoner-of-war camp of 33 huts. After the prisoners left, the camp was used for storage and then abandoned. Its grounds then became overgrown. As the museum was being set up, much clearing, as well as repair and renovation of the buildings, was required.

Nidderdale Museum is a local and social history museum in the market town of Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale. It has 11 rooms that illustrate the rural life of Nidderdale, including an original cobbler’s shop, a school room, and Victorian parlor. This Museum has a large collection of exhibits, illustrating different aspects of life and work in Nidderdale through the ages. Run entirely by a dedicated team of volunteers, Nidderdale Museum has lots for visitors to see.

Rievaulx Abbey is the perfect choice for a peaceful day out, with its extensive ruins and fascinating museum in a secluded North York Moors valley. The monastery was suppressed in 1538, but the spectacular abbey ruins became a popular subject for Romantic artists in the 18th and 19th centuries. The indoor museum has recently been transformed, featuring previously unseen artifacts, which tell the story of the rise and dramatic fall of the Cistercian abbey, while a new viewing window invites the a

Rotunda Museum is one of the world’s first purpose-built museums and was built to a design suggested by William ‘Strata’ Smith. With over 5,500 fossils and 3,000 minerals, the strengths of the Scarborough collection are numerous type specimens, which were the first of their kind ever to be described, and one of the finest collections of Middle Jurassic fossil plants in the country.

The Royal Pump Room Museum tells the story of Harrogate's heyday as a fashionable spa town when over 1,500 glasses of heavily sulphured spa water were served every day to visitors who came to 'take the waters. Today, the Pump Room consists of both the original 1842 stone rotunda and a glazed annexe which was opened in 1913. The Pump Room offered guests of the town an all-weather facility where they could drink sulphur water which was pumped on-site from a natural spring known as the Old Sulphur

Ryedale Folk Museum is an open-air Museum with historic buildings. There are a variety of floor and ground surfaces, some of which are uneven by nature. It features a wealth of historic buildings, big and small, that were saved from demolition and re-erected here.

The Scarborough Fair Collection and Vintage Transport Museum located in Scarborough, North Yorkshire is one of the largest collections of its type in Europe, which hosts a magnificent working collection of Vintage Cars, Steam Engines, Vintage Fairground Rides and Mechanical Organs topped off with a 'Mighty' Wurlitzer Organ in our spacious ballroom.

The World of James Herriot museum encompasses the very essence of the world-renowned vet. It offers visitors an unforgettable experience of the life and times of a man who became an international celebrity after the publication of his books. The museum is located in a 1940s period house with veterinary science exhibits. It was the original practice of Wight and his partners at 23 Kirkgate, known as "Skeldale House" in the books.

Whitby Museum is an independent museum in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, run by Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, a learned society and registered charity, established in 1823. It has a collection of over 80,000 artifacts, donated over 2 centuries is of local, national & international interest. As well as our permanent collection we have special exhibitions:- Our exhibition room has a changing program of stunning exhibitions.